John Brandon

On July 14, electric vehicle owners will be able to charge up on a Big Mac while their electric vehicle charges in the parking lot.

A new McDonald's in Cary, North Carolina, will be the first of its kind, testing a pilot program with NovaCharge and Coulomb Technologies. The program may pave the way for electric charging stations in close proximity to where people drive and spend their leisure time.

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Want to wow your neighbors this Saturday with some bright and cheery Fourth of July trvia? Tell them about the dangers of perchlorate, the molecule that helps fireworks burn longer. According to experts at DMD Systems who study explosive materials, the molecules are not only harmful to the environment, but to humans as well–-and repeated exposure poses health risks.

The good news is that scientists are developing new “green” fireworks--as in environmentally sound, not the color--that burn nitrogen-based fuels. They also use less smoke and contain fewer toxins.

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Speech technology is advancing quickly; even smartphones offer apps that let you speak commands and perform voice-activated searches. Now, a new app for iPhone and Blackberry can convert spoken Arabic into spoken English (and vice versa).

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Before its planned end-of-life crash landing, which it broadcasted dutifully in HD, Japan's Kaguya lunar craft used its gamma ray spectrometer to find the "first conclusive evidence" of uranium on the lunar surface.

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At ten feet long, the Cygnet is two feet shorter than the Mini Cooper, and decked out in Aston Martin luxury. Based on the Toyota iQ, but with a few extra features including an upgraded interior and external detailing meant to match the luxury design of Aston Martin's significantly more expensive roadsters, the Cygnet -- which is currently a limited concept car that might debut next year -- seats three comfortably, or a fourth passenger can squeeze in behind the driver for a somewhat tighter ride.

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Researchers at Yale University have built the first-ever quantum processor using solid state components, and have run basic algorithms to prove how it works. Previous efforts have simulated a quantum processor without using electronic components.

In their tests, physicists Leonardo DiCarlo and professor Robert Schoelkopf demonstrated the perfect example of how quantum computing beats out traditional processing techniques.

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For those in a wheelchair with limited mobility, Toyota's new brainwave technology is a marvel. The rider of the wheelchair wears a cap that sends signals via a brain-scan electroencephalograph (BSE) to a computer that analyzes the input to steer the chair in real time, as seen here in a video.

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Even though a jellyfish is 90 percent water, it moves at about 40 mph. Jellyfish use their bell -- the top portion, above the tentacles -- to create a jet that propels them through water. Now, scientists at the Chonnam National University in the Republic of Korea have built a robot that mimics the movement. The robot, using an electro-active polymer artificial muscle, retracts and expands its skirt, exerting a minimal voltage and propelling the jellybot faster than you can swim.

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Google Voice is one of those technical advancements that could change your way of communication. With it, you can sign up for a single phone number that rings every phone you own. Then you can hand out the number to everyone you know.

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In the ongoing quest to turn real-world objects into iPhone applications, HP has released a calculator app that is a near perfect imitation of the original HP15C. Released in 1985, this full-function scientific calculator had a root-solver, could handle matrix operations, and supported numerical integration. It also lasted about six months on one battery-–or about five months and 29 days longer than the iPhone. But save for that sacrifice to modernization, the HP15C on the iPhone is pretty slick.

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